The darkness of the room seemed to pierce through even Tallie as she awoke from her sleep, but something felt different. The eerie feeling that something was going on caused her to spring up out of her bed. She looked outside seeing just what looked like blood. The red color was so offsetting she only looked out of the window for mere moments.

She turned and walked to the door as it slid open she was horrified by the sight of dead crew members. Her stomach rolled at the sight as she continued walking down the corridors of the ship, which was bathed in iridescent red just like the outside of the ship. She tapped her combadge yet no reply came. The eeriness of the ship was off put even more through the distinct sounds of screams nearby. She ran down the corridor towards the screams, but when she arrived there was no one there. The screams continued to worsen making her want to cover her ears from the otherworldly sound the screams made. 

Something wasn’t right and she knew it but she couldn’t understand it. If the ship had been attacked she would have been notified right? She headed for the Captain’s ready room hopefully finding the answer to the questions that plagued her mind. She continued to head towards her destination when the screams also became cries for help. She decided to go towards the cries of help after navigating the halls through the ghastly sights she arrived in the conference room seeing Captain Ryder lay ahead. She ran up to him and shook him trying to wake him from what seemed like a bad dream, but he was gone. A tear fell from her eye, but she prepared to investigate further when she noticed a PADD in his hand.

Tallie grabbed the PADD and looked at the contents. All that was displayed was a symbol one of which she had never seen. The symbol was hard to describe holding a sphere in sharp jagged edges held throughout and behind. The color scheme had a dark ruby color and a brown outcrop. The symbols in the brown were unknown to her, but whatever this was she felt it was the culprit behind what she was witnessing. 

The scene faded as Tallie sprang up again this time to see the normal room she would wake up in. She had been helping to tie up some administrative ends of the new Division for the Captain and had been told to go sleep. She was trembling as she laid up in bed the symbol from her apparent nightmare burned into her memory. She didn’t know what it meant, but it couldn’t be good. She brushed the sweat off her brow as she had been in the nightmare for a while it seemed. She stripped off her clothes and took a well needed sonic shower. After finishing up she got dressed, sticking her hair in her normal ponytail and straightening her new pips. She had just been promoted to Lieutenant Commander and was still trying to let it sink in. Her job was the yeoman to Captain Ryder, but she also helped wherever she was needed. She had been recommended to learn command and was set for a bridge duty.

Tallie made her way to the bridge and was shocked by the scene in front of her and paused almost in a frozen state. 

Michael had finally gotten over the initial shock and was preparing to get some answers of what was happening when his yeoman walked onto the bridge and froze. ‘Was this how we looked a few moments ago?’ He thought as he went and jostled Tallie slightly, “Quite a view isn’t it Commander?” he grinned at her.

The jostle worked and Tallie looked at Michael nodding “It is quite a view, Sir. What is it?” she asked, still trying to figure out what she was looking at. “That is what we’re trying to figure out as of this moment.” he replied looking over at Xiao. 

Xiao looked at Michael and shrugged slightly from the question, giving a mischievous grin as he turned and went to the science station behind him. He began to run initial scans and was puzzled at the results “Sir, whatever this is it has caused severe issues with the nebula ahead. All indications show the gas has been agitated so much that we cannot get closer without the possibility of severe damage to ourselves or the ships sitting just outside the aperture. The scans show this as a simple gravimetric distortion, but I think we know it is more than that. I need to look further into it to determine anymore than that, Sir” he concluded looking at the data more. 

Michael shook his head “Do so with haste, Commander. We need to determine what is going on and how we can work around it, especially with those ships being stranded as they are.” Michael knew his crew was capable but given the volatile state of the nebula he did not want to take anything to chance. He put a hand up “Also determine how we can safely traverse the nebula. I want results not excuses.” he stated firmly. A solitary nod came from Xiao as he departed for his science lab to determine the information the Captain wanted.

The bridge doors whooshed open to another familiar face of Kra’vaak who had been busy working on a backlog of reports from the events just a few months prior. “Captain, what have you gotten us into now.” he said in his normal joking tone not a normal sight as a Klingon, but one he had decided to embrace and one the crew seemed to enjoy when a lighthearted moment was needed. Michael smirked at him “Late as always, well it seems we have an anomaly. I am hoping your knowledge might help here. We need to determine who could be on those ships.”

Kra’vaak nodded since he had extensive knowledge of species throughout the known quadrants, which made him the go-to historian on the ship it seemed. “Magnify on the ships,” he ordered. The screen zoomed in on the ships and he began to study the vessels looking through the design of the craft and the distinct properties. As he started to remember where he saw the ship his face got puzzled and he stopped for a minute trying to remember where he had seen those aspects of a ship before. The truth was he couldn’t remember where he had seen them, but he knew he had seen it. It was rare for him not to remember, usually it came from a memory he wanted to repress, but he didn’t recall that here. “Captain, I am going to have to do some research, but I will come up with an answer.” 

Tallie sat at the terminal nearest the bridge exit looking through information trying to determine the symbol she had seen; she could not get it out of her head. She had been digging through databases from multiple encounters trying to use the information she had to determine what it was she saw. After twenty minutes she was starting to get frustrated and about to give up when she saw it. The symbol sent chills through her all because of the nightmare she had seen. It was worse than she had originally thought. She had thought the crew was just murdered, but now knowing who that symbol came from something much worse seemed to bother her. The whole situation made her uneasy. ‘Should I tell the Captain…or wait till we know more information.’ The question rang in her head as she looked at the symbol and saw the Captains face from the dream appear again. She swallowed her throat and made her decision. She stood up and looked at the Captain, “Sir, could we talk in private.” her voice slightly trembled from the experience which had bothered her more than she realized.

Michael looked at Tallie and could tell something was bothering her. He went over to her “Sure, let’s head to my ready room.” He said reassuringly as he led the way. He knew Tallie and the way she was acting was not normal, though he didn’t know what was going on he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

To be continued…